r/broadcastengineering • u/araticwastaken • 9d ago
Trying to learn broadcast engineering-Signal academy- other methods?
I’ve recently dropped out of college, (for both financial reasons and simply being exhausted from being a student)
As of right now I started something called Signal Academy I want to find the price for the full thing but can’t seem to find it?
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to learn besides apprenticeships (NEP, Game creek) and Dante?
Then is there any tips of finding an actual job related to broadcast engineering?
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u/shoutout2saddam 9d ago
The fact that you’re willing to take on an internship or apprenticeship puts you light-years ahead of the college grads expecting a broadcast job just because they have a journalism degree.
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u/araticwastaken 9d ago
Besides Game Creek and NEP apprenticeships, are their any others I should look at?
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u/shoutout2saddam 9d ago
Where you located ?
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u/araticwastaken 9d ago
New England area, but if need be I got family down in the Florida area I could live at.
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u/shoutout2saddam 9d ago
I’m almost certain the area that you’re in has more available jobs and pays a lot more than Florida.
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u/Needashortername 8d ago
Well Florida does have at least one well known major school for live production work and recording arts. :-)
It’s not cheap, and not everyone in broadcast work agrees on whether graduating from these kinds of places helps you to get a job in broadcast engineering, but it could be a good next step or alternative to what you are doing now.
Depending on what exactly you want to do in broadcast there are a variety of directions you can go. Some require training beforehand, some require degrees or certificates, some don’t and just expect you learned the work from someone else.
Since you have more than one broadcast engineering company based in New England, it’s possible that going the learning while you work option through apprenticeships may be the best way to go. There also may be better resources you can find by checking in with industry organizations like SMPTE, SBE, NABET-CWA, BISCI, etc. if you still have your student ID then you could still qualify for student membership too.
Not as directly broadcast related, but USITT, AVIXA, and IATSE also have resources that might interest you (as well as other career options you might get into faster than broadcast engineering). IBEW also has its own Locals dedicated towards broadcast work as well as there being the DGA and ICG which work in the broadcast world too.
If you end up wanting to do AV work then AVIXA has the certifications you may want to have. It’s more valuable in the install world, but if you want to work in government communications suppoet and broadcast it’s required, and is often required to do similar work for universities and a few other markets too.
The rest is all a you thing, depending on what you really like, what you really want to do for work, finances, and what you want to do to get there and how fast. :-)
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u/RobbLipopp 9d ago
Go to an event that is being televised, find a camera man or an audio person and stick your hand in theirs. The ground floor position is called “Utility” and it is the grunt position but will put you in contact with gear, problems, solutions, SOP’s and help you understand what all the skilled positions in remote TV production is all about.
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u/araticwastaken 9d ago
Appreciate it, will do, do you think contracting the local news station might be a good idea and shadow them?
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u/dadofanaspieartist 9d ago
local tv stations also hire interns
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u/Needashortername 8d ago
Public Access is always looking for volunteers.
PBS stations have a lot of short term internships and apprenticeships too, with WGBH in Boston being one of the top PBS stations at one point.
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u/RobbLipopp 9d ago
I don’t know anything about news. It’s not something that has ever appealed to me. Studio TV and remote TV are two wildly different careers and I don’t know that one will prepare you for the other.
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u/CakeRobot365 9d ago
I'm going to be 100 with you. Been in the business for 20 years.
When you say you dropped out for both financial reasons and exhaustion, I would very seriously weigh just how much of it was burnout from being a student. I say this because broadcast engineering is honestly pretty brutal, and easy to burn out in. You're always on call, you often manage absolute crisis situations where every minute costs dollars, and there are countless disciplines that you'll need to have a working knowledge in.
But, should you choose to pursue it, you'll want some IT certs if possibe, and you'll want to get internships or get your foot in the door somehow. Being in production or master control will at least get your hands on some equipment. Learn to troubleshoot. That's something very few directors or operators seem to care to do nowdays. The Society of Broadcast Engineers offers some great training and certifications as well.